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With a 75% ratification vote announced late on 7 July, Canadian nickel mining and processing workers represented by United Steelworkers (USW) Locals 6500 and 6200 in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, ended a 360-day strike against Vale SA. The Brazilian mining company and 3,500 USW members now begin a five-year collective agreement after a contentious strike that ended with both sides compromising on terms in mediated bargaining. 
 
Those terms were pieced together in high-level mediation from 19-22 June in Toronto. But final accord still eluded both sides due to differences in setting forth a just process through arbitration of Vale&rsquo;s unilateral sacking of nine strikers. Over 3-4 July, through the insistence of Ontario Provincial Labour Minister Peter Fonseca, a process was established, opening the way for the 6-7 July contract vote. 
 
Still to be resolved, however, is another strike over a separate labour contract between Vale and USW Local 9508 involving 200 steelworkers in Voiseys Bay and Goose Bay, Labrador. Those strikers have been out since 1 August 2009. The USW and Vale are expected to return to bargaining in mid-July in eastern Canada&rsquo;s maritime province, and resolution appears imminent following the Ontario approval. There, 84% of total membership of the two branch unions turned out last week to ratify. 
<img alt="" src="" width="347" height="138" />
The contract acceptance in Ontario thus closes a chapter to one of Canada&rsquo;s most acrimonious labour disputes, a dispute that saw mining and other unions from around the world galvanize behind the USW in efforts to preserve previously negotiated wage and work terms. The ICEM and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) helped coordinate the global campaign. 
 
In a joint statement, ICEM and IMF General Secretaries Manfred Warda and Jyrki Raina said: &ldquo;The perseverance and character of USW members in Ontario and Labrador is what trade unions everywhere will remember about this strike. Their fight became our fight and thus they laid the building blocks on how to wage a coordinated global campaign.&rdquo; 
 
The five-year agreement in Ontario includes yearly wage increases that, coupled with cost-of-living increases, will increase salaries between C$2.25 and C$2.50 per hour over the life of the agreement. The existing defined benefit pension plan for current workers also increases in increments over the contract term, with cost-of-living indexing and life-time health care benefits preserved. 
 
In compromises made by the two sides, a defined contribution pension plan for new hires was agreed to that provides company contributions equal to 8% of employees&rsquo; regular basic earnings, with workers able to contribute additionally between 2% to 6% of regular earnings. This plan includes long-term disability coverage that is the same as that contained in the defined benefit pension plan. 
<img alt="" src="" width="347" height="138" />
The nickel production bonus was retained, although at levels less than the previously negotiated bonus. Workers can still supplement regular earnings by up to C$15,000 per year, with compromise struck on the price of nickel in which the trigger kicks in. The prior trigger of US$2.25 per pound was increased to US$3.75, less than the US$5.00-per-pound originally sought by Vale. 
 
The new contract includes a C$2,000 signing bonus for all returning and retiring employees, with two additional C$1,000 bonuses linked to production numbers in the last one-third of 2010. 
 
It also includes a side agreement setting forth rigid contracting-out criteria, which will serve as a job security measure. 
 
A retirement incentive bonus was negotiated that will give workers with 30 years service a one-time C$30,000 retirement stipend, with C$15,000 granted to those with 27-29 years. A reduction in force was also agreed to of 113 jobs, with those redundancies very likely to come by way of attrition. 
 
The return-to-work agreement calls for Vale to recall USW members beginning in the next to the last week of July, and no later that 11 August. In the separate agreement involving the fate of the nine discharged USW Local 6500 members, the two sides agreed to have the Ontario Labour Relations Board make a determination on whether or not the unjust firings will go to independent arbitration. Those governmental hearings began on 9 July. 
 
In the USW&rsquo;s statement announcing the ratification, District Six Director Wayne Fraser said, &quot;Our members have spoken and I believe everyone respects the decisions they have made in extremely difficult circumstances.&rdquo;

Canadian USW Members Ratify 5-Year Collective Agreement with Vale

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />The current propensity by multinationals to lock-out Canadian workers when they refuse cutbacks to their work standards continues. On 5 May, Evraz North America, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Evraz Group, locked out 105 union members of Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 551 in Camrose, Alberta.The lockout comes three months after expiration of a prior labour agreement and more tellingly, comes during a boom cycle of steel pipe manufacturing, with the Camrose mill residing squarely and profitably inside the booming bitumen oil production fields of western Canada.Evraz is seeking elimination of the defined benefit pension scheme for new employees, cuts in retiree benefits for future pensioners, and has offered pay rates in a new three-year contract that are less than what it agreed to at union-represented tubular pipe factories in Regina, Saskatchewan, and Calgary, Alberta, late last year. The company also seeks to slash vacation benefits in Camrose.Meanwhile, due to an acute shortage of skilled workers in the Canadian tar sands, the Camrose factories have been unable to hire enough metalworkers to operate around-the-clock operations and even before the lockout, the company has been stretched thin in meeting existing orders from oil- and gas-producing firms.&ldquo;It is completely unfathomable that workers in the oil and gas industry working in the hottest economy in North America are being attacked and threated to give back long fought gains,&rdquo; said CAW National Representative Todd Romanow.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 157px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;Todd RomanowLast year, the United Steelworkers (USW) set up a global <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4346-Steelworkers-Form-a-98Unity-Councila-for-Evraz-Metal-Mine-Workers">Unity Council</a> for workers and their unions of the Evraz Group. In a message to USW Local 6673 in Calgary and USW Local 5890 in Regina, Romanow wrote:&ldquo;At the heart of this attack is the removal of our defined benefits plan and retiree benefits for future employees but make no mistake, the fight is bigger than that as it is an attack from a multinational conglomerate on working people and the middle class.&rdquo; He added it is &ldquo;all in the name of corporate greed and insatiable profits.&rdquo;The Evraz Group is controlled by holding companies connected to the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, owner of UK&rsquo;s Chelsea football club of the English Premier League. It is Russia&rsquo;s largest steelmaker, operates iron ore and coal mines throughout the world, and is North America&rsquo;s largest producer of tubular pipe and second largest maker of steel plate.In Camrose, a facility Evraz got in 2007 with the US$2.3 billion acquisition of US-based Oregon Steel Mills, the company operates two pipe mills, one making 16-inch piping and casing for drilling and transport of oil and natural gas, the other producing large-diameter pipe used in transmission lines.

Evraz Pipe Shamefully Locks Out Members of Canadian Auto Workers

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 59px" width="390" />

	The current propensity by multinationals to lock-out Canadian workers when they refuse cutbacks to their work standards continues. On 5 May, Evraz North America, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Evraz Group, locked out 105 union members of Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 551 in Camrose, Alberta.

	The lockout comes three months after expiration of a prior labour agreement and more tellingly, comes during a boom cycle of steel pipe manufacturing, with the Camrose mill residing squarely and profitably inside the booming bitumen oil production fields of western Canada.

	Evraz is seeking elimination of the defined benefit pension scheme for new employees, cuts in retiree benefits for future pensioners, and has offered pay rates in a new three-year contract that are less than what it agreed to at union-represented tubular pipe factories in Regina, Saskatchewan, and Calgary, Alberta, late last year. The company also seeks to slash vacation benefits in Camrose.

	Meanwhile, due to an acute shortage of skilled workers in the Canadian tar sands, the Camrose factories have been unable to hire enough metalworkers to operate around-the-clock operations and even before the lockout, the company has been stretched thin in meeting existing orders from oil- and gas-producing firms.

	&ldquo;It is completely unfathomable that workers in the oil and gas industry working in the hottest economy in North America are being attacked and threated to give back long fought gains,&rdquo; said CAW National Representative Todd Romanow.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 157px" width="390" />

	Todd Romanow

	Last year, the United Steelworkers (USW) set up a global <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4346-Steelworkers-Form-a-98Unity-Councila-for-Evraz-Metal-Mine-Workers">Unity Council</a> for workers and their unions of the Evraz Group. In a message to USW Local 6673 in Calgary and USW Local 5890 in Regina, Romanow wrote:

	&ldquo;At the heart of this attack is the removal of our defined benefits plan and retiree benefits for future employees but make no mistake, the fight is bigger than that as it is an attack from a multinational conglomerate on working people and the middle class.&rdquo; He added it is &ldquo;all in the name of corporate greed and insatiable profits.&rdquo;

	The Evraz Group is controlled by holding companies connected to the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, owner of UK&rsquo;s Chelsea football club of the English Premier League. It is Russia&rsquo;s largest steelmaker, operates iron ore and coal mines throughout the world, and is North America&rsquo;s largest producer of tubular pipe and second largest maker of steel plate.

	In Camrose, a facility Evraz got in 2007 with the US$2.3 billion acquisition of US-based Oregon Steel Mills, the company operates two pipe mills, one making 16-inch piping and casing for drilling and transport of oil and natural gas, the other producing large-diameter pipe used in transmission lines.

Evraz Pipe Unjustifiably Locks Out Canadian Auto Workers Unionists

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	Some 200 delegates and international guests gathered 11 May in the Serbian city of Kragujevac for the founding Congress of Industrija, Energija, Rudarstvo, or IER Nezavisnost, the new 35,000-member industrial front of UGS Nezavisnost that brings together the ICEM-affiliated Chemicals, Non-Metals and Mining Trade Union, or GSHNER Nezavisnost, with the federation&rsquo;s metalworking union (GSM Nezavisnost), and the Trade Union of Textile, Leather and Shoe Industries (GSTKO Nezavisnost), an affiliate of the International Federation of Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF).

	The merger marked the first time in Serbia that trade unions combined to gain greater strength, rather than past trends of pulling apart.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 221px;height: 79px" width="390">

	Guest speaker, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, made note of this fact and drew the parallel of this historic achievement to what is now occurring on the global level with the creation of IndustriALL.

	The founding Congress was held in Serbia&rsquo;s fourth largest city, a community now gearing up with production of a 2,500-worker Fiat automotive plant in which union recruitment will be essential. The Congress saw guests come from the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), the European Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (EMF), IndustriEnergi (IE) of Norway, FIM-CISL of Italy, FNME-CGT of France, Petrom of Romania, EKN of Croatia and KNG of Slovenia.

	Also in attendance were several representatives from regional-based companies, which signal realistic expectations that tri-partite and bi-lateral social dialogue is on the horizon.

	The Congress elected former GSHNER Nezavisnost President Milorad Panović as President and Dragon Vesić of that former union as General Secretary. Elected as Vice Presidents were former GSM Nezavisnost President Nenard Matić and former GSHNER Nezavisnost Vice President Zoran Pantelić. GSTKO Nezavisnost is represented on the eight-member Executive Committee by Bo&scaron;ko Karalić.

Serbian Branches of UGS Nezavisnost Merge Into Single Industry, Energy, Mine Union

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	A strike by ICEM Indonesian affiliate KSP2KI at one of the world&rsquo;s largest paper mills last week produced sizeable salary increases for over 13,000 workers. With strike support from nearly all workers at Asia Pulp and Paper&rsquo;s (APP) PT Pindo Deli&rsquo;s twin mills in Karawang, West Java, the union achieved substantially more than the minimum government-mandated increase that APP was at first willing to distribute.

	As well, KSP2KI won substantial increases for the lowest paid paperworkers and an APP pledge that it would engage in continuous social dialogue with the union.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 212px;height: 159px" width="390">

	FSP2KI Strike Leaders

	The two-year accord became retroactive to 1 April and grants workers, in some cases, a doubling of the provincial government minimum. KSP2KI, or&nbsp; Federasi Serikat Pekerja Pulp Dan Kertas, the Pulp and Paper Union of Indonesia, announced a three-day strike on 7 May but because of the large strike turnout, management resumed talks and agreed to the across-the-board increases on the day the strike started.

	In March, managers of the 900,000-metric-tonnes-per-year paperboard, writing papers and tissue mills had unilaterally decided on the minimum increase while still in bargaining. The strike and immediate return to the table saw wages lifted from 9.14% to 18% for most workers at low-end classifications, with increases to 14.14% and 11.14% in medium- and top-level classifications.

	That translates to an average IDR (Indonesia Rupiah) monthly increase of 139,363 (US$15.12). The minimum monthly pay at PT Pindo Deli in Karawang had been IDR 1,450,000 (US$157), so the pay grid for most workers will climb to above US$180-per-month.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 225px;height: 169px" width="390">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	The ICEM commends the KSP2KI &ndash; a union with 7,650 members at the twin Karawang mills &ndash; for the well-organised strike action and subsequent result, and encourages all workers at Karawang, including workers of outsource companies operating inside the mills, to take up union membership.

	APP is part of Indonesian Sinar Mas Group and operates some ten paper machines and 14 paper-coating machines in the Karawang No. 1 and No. 2 mills in West Java. It also operates wholly-owned or majority-controlled pulp and paper mills &ndash; some nine in total &ndash; in other parts of Indonesia.&nbsp;

Indonesian Paperworkers Win Big Pay Gains in Short Strike

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	The two unions representing 43,000 Austrian chemical workers &ndash; ICEM affiliate PRO-GE and GPA-djp &ndash; reached 2012-13 wage terms with Fachverband der Chemischen Industrie (FCIO), the Chemical Industry Association on 11 May. The deal came following four difficult rounds of bargaining, and also came after public protests and authorisation for warning strikes late last week by PRO-GE&rsquo;s General Board.

	The result was an increase in minimum salaries of 4.5%, effective 1 May, and actual increases for all workers of 4.35%, or at least a monthly minimum increase of &euro;90 that, in essence, will lift the pay for lower salaried workers to over 5%.

	The agreement is for 12 months and covers some 270 chemical companies represented by FCIO.

	The unions won a 4.5% pay increase for apprentices, 4.5% added to shift and night shift premiums, and a 3.2% hike to work allowance benefits.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 180px;height: 120px" width="390" />

	3 May Manifestation in Schwechat

	But perhaps most notable in the new collective agreement is improved maternal leave language whereby women can spend up to two years at home, with 16 months of that credited in calculation of wage increases and retirement benefits. The unions also won for chemical workers added bereavement leave in cases of death of children, either those living at home or away from home.

	Deputy PRO-GE Chairman Alfred Artm&auml;uer and GPA-djp Secretary Roman Krenn, who jointly led the unions&rsquo; bargaining efforts, credited shop stewards across the Alpine nation for conducting meetings and mobilising chemical workers for the favourable agreement after the third round of talks failed on 27 April.

	Indicative of the mobilisations was a 3 May one in Schwechat near Vienna where 800 workers manifested at a Borealis polyolefin plant.

After Testy Talks, Austrian Chemical Workers Agree to 4.35% Wage Hikes

The ArcelorMittal Health and Safety Committee, created in June 2008 in a common effort by the company and unions to improve safety in ArcelorMittal, issued its first report of activities on 15 August called &ldquo;Together for Safety.&rdquo; The number of fatalities has declined since 2008, but remains unacceptably high in the company. 
 
In 2008, ArcelorMittal management and unions signed an agreement to create a Joint Health and Safety Committee to address the high number of fatalities in the company&rsquo;s units. The Committee is composed of representatives of the IMF, the European Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation, the United Steelworkers (USW), CNM-CUT, a mining area representative, and company Health and Safety representatives. 
 
On 15 August, the Joint Global Health and Safety Committee launched its first report, concluding it has had a positive impact on the number of fatalities, which it ascribes to good workplace cooperation between trade unions and management. 
 
Since its inception, the Committee has created local health and safety committees and made site visits in priority company sites in Kazakhstan, Brazil, Mexico, Czech Republic, Romania, South Africa, USA, Argentina, and Ukraine. During these visits, local union members and management met with committee members to review the local safety situation and develop a health and safety action plan. The committee has then arranged follow-up visits. 
 
The committee concludes that it has had a positive impact on the number of accidents in the workplace, especially fatalities, and helped reduce risk faced by workers. It has also helped to improve communication and cooperation between unions and management, locally and globally. 
 
The committee, however, also notes an increase in the number of fatalities in the last year &ndash; from 36 in 2009 to 41 in 2010, which is considered to be unacceptably high by both unions and management. 
 
There remain issues of dispute between unions and management. The company has publicised a set of &ldquo;Golden Rules&rdquo; for safety and associated actions, including penalties for violations, while unions fear that this violations policy will impede safety by dissuading workers to report about minor accidents and near misses, thereby creating a lazy safety management culture. 
 
There is also joint criticism of inconsistent responses to requests for health and safety training, and a deficient dialogue on the subject at some business units and work sites. 
 
The parties remain committed to the committee&rsquo;s work, and see the joint report and accompanying union and management statements as evidence for a working dialogue and commitment to building a positive workplace culture. 
 
The report, &ldquo;Together for Safety,&rdquo; has been issued in English, and will be published also in French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese. 
 
For further details, contact Joint Committee co-chair Rob Johnston at <a href="void(0);/*1316099350265*/">rjohnston@imfmetal.org</a>.

Common Efforts Input to Workers’ Safety at ArcelorMittal

Multi-stakeholder negotiations in Indonesia, bringing together major sportswear brands, key manufacturers and five unions &ndash; including ITGLWF affiliates SPN and Garteks &ndash; have cumulated in the signing of a protocol to protect trade union rights. 
 
The negotiations began in November 2009 following a major Play Fair campaign and a commitment by major sportswear brands to engage country-by-country with trade unions in order to agree concrete steps to bring about improvements to working conditions in the industry. 
 
The protocol, signed on 7 June, addresses the fact that unions in Indonesia&rsquo;s garment and footwear sectors are frequently denied the time and space they need to carry out their duties. The protocol outlaws all forms of anti-union discrimination and requires that a CBA, where none exist, be negotiated within six months. The agreement provides for the release of union officials from work duties in order to carry out their union activities; requires provision of adequate office, meeting and notice board space; gives unions the freedom to distribute information without interference; and commits signatory factories to facilitate a check-off system for collecting union dues. 
 
Initial signatories comprised multinational brands adidas, Nike and Puma, their key suppliers, and five Indonesian unions including SPN and Garteks. Playfair 2012 launched an action, exactly one year before the London 2012 Olympics, to encourage additional brands to commit to the protocol. The action was well supported and since then Pentland &ndash; owners of the Speedo brand, Asics, and New Balance have agreed to sign the protocol. 
 
Although implementation is in the embryonic stages, some steps have been taken to socialise the protocol. adidas have held workshops for their 58 Indonesian suppliers to inform them about the protocol and encourage them to agree to its provisions, and Nike have promised that all of their suppliers will know about the protocol by the end of October. ITGLWF affiliate Garteks report that the protocol has opened the door for them to negotiate a CBA and they have also seen their membership increase in that factory. 
The ITGLWF is urging all garment and footwear brands sourcing from Indonesia to sign the protocol.

Multi-Stakeholder Negotiations Lead to Garment Framework Agreement

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Fraught by failed efforts in August to give contract workers their legitimate rights in the oilfields of south-central Colombia, Canada-based Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. and the government of Juan Manuel Santos will get a second chance to rectify the low pay, horrid work conditions, and sub-standard working terms of contract workers. 
 
That came because ICEM affiliate Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera (USO) led 4,000 contract workers in Meta Department, Colombia, on a strike and blockade early last week that cut output of South America&rsquo;s third largest oil producer by 25%. The road blockades started on 18 September and continued until 21 September in rural areas near wells in the Rubiales and Quifa oilfields and in the city of Puerto Gaitan. 
<img alt="" src="" width="146" height="66" />
The strikes were violently broken up by 300 Colombia national riot police wielding batons and pitching tear gas. Police ordered a curfew for Puerto Gaitan. The strike, however, forced a tripartite agreement on 21 September between USO, the government&rsquo;s Interior minister, and Pacific Rubiales after six hours of talks. 
 
The protocol agreement calls for a permanent arbitration board to be set up in Bogot&aacute; to address the issues of irregular workers labouring in the oilfields. Those issues include regularisation of employment, better pay and working conditions, and the right to join a union and bargaining collectively. USO, once the representative of only workers at state-run Ecopetrol, has championed the rights of contract workers in Colombia&rsquo;s burgeoning oil sector. USO also is championing the re-hire of 800 contract workers who have been sacked in the recent past for trade union activity. 
<img alt="" src="" width="213" height="160" />
Last week&rsquo;s accord is not the first time that a tri-partite forum was set up to address and solve these issues. In August, Colombian Vice President Angelino Garz&oacute;n chaired a meeting in which nine tripartite working groups made recommendations for fairness and justice. None of the submitted recommendations by the working groups were accepted by contractors or by Ecopetrol, prompting last week&rsquo;s strike and blockades. 
 
USO is intent that poverty wages, exhausting work hours, and unlimited days of consecutive work disappear from the Colombian energy landscape. Several contractors along with Pacific Rubiales exploit irregular workers in the Llanos basin and other oil-rich basins of central and eastern Colombia. Pacific Rubiales, which owns Colombian oil company Meta Petroleum, operates oilfields in eastern Meta Department jointly with Ecopetrol and has been a magnet for labour unrest over the past several months. 
 
Two weeks ago, contract workers led by USO conducted similar strikes and blockades in Casanare department at the Corcel and Guatiquia upstream operations. Those facilities are run by another Canadian company, Petrominerales Ltd., which holds extensive Colombian production facilities both by itself and with Ecopetrol.

Colombia Oilfields: Government Must Now Address Contract Workers’ Issues

<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="54" />
International pressure &ndash; both inside and out of Georgia &ndash; caused a change of course last week by police and political authorities in the aftermath of belligerent 15 September strike-breaking at Euroasian Steels in Kutaisi. Not only were over 30 sacked workers offered their jobs back, but police questioned the Indian managing director and two aides at Euroasian, also known as Hercules Steel, on 29 September.
The next day the top boss was sacked. 
 
Meanwhile, three strike leaders &ndash; Emilo Gumberidze, Irakli Iobidze, and Malkhaz Gogiava &ndash; who were jailed by police on bogus charges were released after serving ten-day sentences in the Kutaisi jail. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4673-Georgian-Trade-Union-Leaders-Jailed-for-Passing-Drug-Test">ICEM report here</a>.) 
 
They immediately called Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union President Tamazi Dolaberidze and pledged their continued support to the union. On 30 September, the new acting managing director of Hercules personally called each of the three to offer them their jobs back. The reversal gave Hercules metalworkers renewed momentum following the strike&rsquo;s crushing and that registered both with Georgian workers and about 130 Indian workers employed at the rolling mill.
<img alt="" src="" width="275" height="160" />
Georgia's Police Break Strike in Kutaisi, 15 September&nbsp;
Several points of global and internal civil pressure caused deep embarrassment to Georgia. There also was high-level diplomatic pressure involved, especially after an international delegation that included the ICEM and top leaders from Poland&rsquo;s Solidarnoş&ccedil; exposed the fact that the Indian workers at Hercules may be treated worse than anyone else. 
 
They live eight to a room in a dormitory adjacent to the mill, their passports were being head by the senior boss, and their salaries are sent back to India. It is believed that the top boss, Raji Kumar Sureika, was sacked because he was holding the passports. 
 
The strike last month by 200 Hercules metalworkers was sparked after the Metallurgical, Mining, Chemical Union gained written support from a majority of the Georgian workers and then requested labour-management dialogue. After several weeks, the request was ignored and the strike started, including hunger strikes by four workers in front of the mill. 
 
Two days into the strike, police violently broke it up and literally <a href="/en/4-Chemicals-Pharmaceuticals/4667-ICEM-Scorns-Blatant-Police-Repression-in-Putting-Down-Georgian-Metal-Strike">forced workers</a> back to their jobs. Workers are angry that the two-year-old start-up mill has no salary schedule, no health and safety plan, and pays no overtime. Following last week&rsquo;s good news, the ICEM-affiliated Metallurgical, Mining, Chemical Union again called on Hercules to enter peaceful, construction negotiations. 
 
The ICEM commends the leadership of the Georgia Trade Union Confederation (GTUC), and Tamazi Dolaberidze, for mobilising to organise, and the Global Union Federation pledges to remain active on the global front over the ever-reocurring abuse of trade union rights in Georgia.

Calm Restored as Georgian Metalworkers Rehired

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